Seedstars Africa Ventures I, a venture capital fund making early-stage investments in scalable startups in Africa, has achieved a first close of US$42 million.
Seedstars Africa Ventures I was created by Maxime Bouan, Tamim El Zein and Bruce Nsereko Lule, in partnership with Seedstars, a global organisation that invests and supports entrepreneurs from emerging markets, and LBO France, a multi-country multi-specialist investment platform that seeded the initiative.
It announced a US$30 million equity investment from EIB Global earlier this year, and has now confirmed a further US$12 million raised as part of a first close that also includes the African Development Bank.
Seedstars Africa Ventures I is addressing gaps in early-stage financing across Africa through investments of up to US$2 million in seed and Series A rounds, with significant follow-on capacity up to US$5 million, thereby bridging available pools of capital. By leading successive investment rounds, the fund will catalyse co-investment while offering operational support to startups.
The fund has already deployed over US$10 million to five pioneering African startups in the climate, food systems, energy access, internet connectivity, financial inclusion, and payments infrastructure sectors – namely Beacon Power Services (Nigeria), Poa! Internet (Kenya), Xeno (Uganda), Bizao (Ivory Coast), and Shamba Pride (Kenya).
